U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,775, issued Apr. 9, 1985 and assigned to the assignee of this invention, describes an intermediate steering shaft between a steering shaft of a motor vehicle and an input shaft of a steering gear of the motor vehicle. The intermediate steering shaft includes a pair of torsionally rigid universal couplings at opposite ends of the intermediate steering shaft and a pair of telescopically related solid and tubular shafts. The solid shaft is rigidly connected to a yoke of a first one of the torsionally rigid universal couplings. The tubular shaft is slidable on and drivingly connected to the solid shaft and connected to a yoke of a second one of the torsionally rigid universal couplings through a torsional damper which damps torsional vibrations emanating from the steering gear input shaft. The torsional damper includes a cylindrical connector sleeve rigidly attached to the yoke of the second torsionally rigid universal coupling and a tubular torsion block made of rubber or suitable elastomer having an outside surface bonded to the connector sleeve and an inside surface bonded to the tubular shaft. Commonly, the torsional stiffness of the torsional damper is changed for application in different motor vehicle models by changing the material composition of the torsion block. A method according to this invention of making a torsional damper for an intermediate steering shaft affords the option of changing the torsional stiffness of the damper without changing the material composition of the torsion block.